Wine #1: Five Rivers Merlot, 2011 Monterrey

First of all, the Vintage Cellar is gold. Beer/wine from across the world all conveniently located next to the ABC store on North Main. They do wine tastings every Thursday and Saturday, with beer tasting every Friday. Check em out!

Balling on the average college kid's budget, most of the wines there were out of my league. But Vintage Cellar knows this, and puts their clearance rack front and center.

Which is where I found Wine #1:

Banana for scale.

I don't recommend using pint glasses for this; the whole sniff and swirl thing didn't work as well as it would in a proper wine glass.

In a few whiffs, it smells like blueberry and blackberry, and hides behind the alcohol a bit, so it does take a few smells.

After looking like an idiot trying to taste it the "right" way, all I took away was that it was very sweet and fruity. Once I get the whole aspiration thing down it could be better.

Overall, it smells better than it tastes. Something spicy/cooked would pair well, and for $8.95, not bad. But I know I can do better.

VERDICT:    2/5

The w(h)ining begins

The only time I've had wine before was at church, back when 10-year-old me thought swigging the Jesus Juice©  for too long was a cardinal sin. Catholic elementary school will do that to you.

This blog is for John Boyer's Geography of Wines class, and I'll be posting about the wines I taste and the impressions I get from them. I'm new to the wine scene, so I won't list a slew of high society words and pass it off as a review.

My first love was craft beer, so I'll include my favorite ones I try on here as well, for fun.

By semester's end I hope to look at wine as more than just its alcohol content, but as a food enhancer and flavorful drink in its own right.